Some random Pittsburgh History

So this is not anything deep, just something that I have been thinking about lately, and I feel that I need to briefly educate people on this topic: the topic of "Pittsburghese". For those of you who don't know, this is the language of the city of Pittsburgh, the manner in which us Pittsburghers talk. A lot of people outside of the Burgh know this simply as the word "yinz" but it is actually much more than that. We have a whole book dedicated to Pittsburgh speech and the way in which we formulate our words and phrases to sound different than anywhere else in the United States. I know there are a lot of "yinz" haters out there, so here is a bit of history for you on that. This word, used to address more than one person, comes from the Scottish-Irish immigrants who came to Southwestern, PA at the beginning of the 17th century. So no, we didn't just arbitrarily make up that word. You can take up your frustration with the European immigrants who came here centuries ago. It is always the same argument against the word yinz: "It doesn't make any sense, at least the word y'all makes sense". Well it doesn't have to make sense to be a part of our unique history and culture in Pittsburgh, and I'm sorry if you don't like it or don't have a language of your own, but we are quite proud of our Pittsburghese and I am prepared to fight for it! We are all entitled to our own opinions so no one is forcing you to like it, but I will say 'yinz' as much as my heart desires. From a proud Pittsburgher, I hope yinz have a good day :)

If you're interested in reading more about our history or how to speak like a Pittsburgher, here ya go!

http://pittsburghspeech.pitt.edu/PittsburghSpeech_History.html

http://pittsburghspeech.pitt.edu/PittsburghSpeech_PgheseOverview.html